WHEN Dennis and Annette Lane made their way to Kim’s Country Coffee on Friday morning, they thought it was to celebrate their daughter-in-law’s birthday.
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The last thing they expected was to win $10,000 in the Today show’s Knock of Cash competition.
The couple, who lost everything they owned when a fire destroyed their home in May, had a massive change in fortune after another daughter-in-law, Carly Quaratino entered them in the Channel Nine breakfast show’s competition.
The couple, who literally lost everything in the house fire except what they had on their backs, were in shock yesterday, saying they couldn’t believe they had won.
They said as they made their way into the cafe on Friday morning they had absolutely no inkling of what was about to unfold before them.
They didn’t even become suspicious when Carly left briefly, saying she needed to go grab something.
“Carly’s always doing 50,000 things at once, so we didn’t think anything of it,” Mrs Lane said.
Minutes later she saw Carly walking up the street with cameras everywhere.
Even then Mrs Lane said she thought she was just being interviewed but the cameras kept rolling as Carly walked back into the cafe.
Mrs Lane said the penny dropped something was happening when she saw her sisters, who live a distance from Bathurst, walking in behind the camera.
“I think that’s when it sank in, that something was happening,” she said.
A week before the surprise Carly, who by that stage knew her in-laws had won the competition, had to covertly ask her mother-in-law if she objected to entering her in the competition.
But even then Mrs Lane suspected nothing.
“She said to me if by chance we won, would we go on television.
“I said I won’t but my husband can,” she laughed.
Mr Lane, who spoke on TV about the house fire and losing everything they owned in it, said the presenter, Natalia Cooper, got a bit teary eyed in the segment.
“She was worse than me,” he laughed.
Mr Lane said the couple, who lived at Walang, had come into Bathurst the day of the fire to celebrate his birthday, when they got a call at 2.45pm from the police saying the house had burnt down.
But he said Friday’s surprise was “absolutely amazing”.
“I’m still in shock,” he said.
“I think it’s going to take a while to sink in, it’s such a big surprise.”
Mr Lane said the couple plan to use the money and take a holiday down the Margaret River.
“After everything that’s happened, it’s something to look forward to,” he said.
The couple also took the opportunity to thank their family and friends, and everyone who had helped them in any way since they lost their house.
“Everyone has been such a big help,” they said.